Publications:

In this paper the dynamics of a Chaplygin sleigh like system are investigated. The
system consists a of a Chaplygin sleigh with an internal rotor connected by a torsional spring,
which is possibly non-Hookean. The problem is motivated by applications in robotics, where
the motion of a nonholonomic system is sought to be controlled by modifying or tuning the
stiffness associated with some degrees of freedom of the system. The elastic potential modifies
the dynamics of the system and produces two possible stable paths in the plane, a straight
line and a circle, each of which corresponds to fixed points in a reduced velocity space. Two
different elastic potentials are considered in this paper, a quadratic potential and a Duffing like
quartic potential. The stiffness of the elastic element, the relative inertia of the main body and
the internal rotor and the initial energy of the system are all bifurcation parameters. Through
numerics, we investigate the codimension-one bifurcations of the fixed points while holding
all the other bifurcation parameters fixed. The results show the possibility of controlling the
dynamics of the sleigh and executing different maneuvers by tuning the stiffness of the spring.

We describe a model for the dynamic interaction of a sphere with uniform density and a system of coaxial circular vortex rings in an ideal fluid of equal density. At regular intervals in time, a constraint is imposed that requires the velocity of the fluid relative to the sphere to have no component transverse to a particular circular contour on the sphere. In order to enforce this constraint, new vortex rings are introduced in a manner that conserves the total momentum in the system. This models the shedding of rings from a sharp physical ridge on the sphere coincident with the circular contour. If the position of the contour is fixed on the sphere, vortex shedding is a source of drag. If the position of the contour varies periodically, propulsive rings may be shed in a manner that mimics the locomotion of certain jellyfish. We present simulations representing both cases.